出租车

打车 literally means 'flag down a car', so 车 is already the taxi you're stopping. Adding 出租车 on top sounds like hailing a taxi-taxi. Use 打车 when you're standing on the street with your arm out. Use 坐出租车 when you're describing the ride afterward to someone. 打的 is the older northern version and still common in Beijing, though it dates you a little. For app bookings, people say 叫车 or 叫个车.

Chinese lines actions up in the order they actually happen. 我坐出租车去机场 means the taxi is your transport to the airport. 我去机场坐出租车 means you get to the airport some other way, then grab a taxi once you're there. Same words, swapped slots, totally different story. This pattern works with any vehicle: 坐地铁去公司 versus 去公司坐地铁.

“晚上，我坐出租车去大学那边的苹果商店买手机。” (In the evening, I took a taxi to the Apple Store near the university to buy a phone.)

Mainland China says 出租车. Hong Kong and Guangdong say 的士, borrowed straight from the English word 'taxi'. Taiwan says 计程车, and there 出租车 can even point to a rental car instead. Locals will usually work out what you mean, but the wrong word instantly flags you as an outsider. Pick one and stay consistent with the region you're in.

出租车 in the strict sense is the licensed cab with a meter and a roof light that you flag down on the street. Cars booked through Didi or Gaode are 网约车, hired through an app at a fixed quote. Daily speech blurs the two: 打车 covers both, and nobody will blink. The distinction bites when you complain, claim insurance, or need a printed receipt.